David G. Whitten Symposium Celebrates a Lifetime of Research and Teaching

David G. Whitten is the kind of professor his students remember for a lifetime, and they and his professional colleagues will celebrate his contributions to research and teaching in a two-day symposium scheduled for Thursday-Friday, Aug. 19-20 on the University of New Mexico campus. The symposium celebrates a man who has been a thesis advisor and mentor to more than 38 Ph.D. students and has co-authored scientific papers with more than 275 colleagues.

Whitten is currently a professor of Chemical and Nuclear Engineering at UNM and the interim director of the Center for Biomedical Research at UNM. He is internationally recognized as a leading scientific research in the field of photochemistry, and is the longtime editor of "Langmuir" the leading professional journal in interphase materials research.

Symposium organizer and colleague Scott Sibbett says, "there are only a few professors in the world today who are as productive, influential and well-loved as David." Whitten's students are working throughout the profession in a variety of important jobs throughout the world.

His work has ranged from the academic to the technical. He has been a technical staff member at Los Alamos National Laboratory and director of the National Science Center for Photoinduced Charge Transfer at the University of Rochester, where he was also the chair of the Department of Chemistry. He co-founded a company, and came to UNM after serving as a professor of Chemistry and Biochemistry at Arizona State University.

A detailed conference schedule is available, along with ticket information for specific events.